So I ran into a bit of a snag with my PlayStation 3 last week when I went to pick up Iron Man only to discover my system would not play Blu-ray games or movies any longer. PlayStation 2 games and DVDs run just fine, but Blu-ray just poops out without even trying to read the disc. I had put off calling support in the same way I generally put off calling the doctor, hoping that whatever is wrong will just fix itself (Mike, your arm's fallen off - It'll get better!), but after wistfully browsing the Blu-ray movie aisle at a local retail establishment it was time to make the call.

After navigating the PlayStation support line's various menus and advertisements, I got on the line with a support specialist I will call Denise, mainly because I completely forgot to write down her real name. Denise had never encountered this particular issue before, so she put me on hold to research a bit in between restoring the system's default setting and performing a hard reset. The verdict? My poor little PS3 is dead.

Not all the way dead, mind you. I can still play PlayStation 2 games and access the PSN. It seems as if the Blu-ray portion of the drive just gave up the ghost, turning the system into something of a PlayStation 2.5. It could be as simple as dust on the lens, but the PS3's Blu-ray workings are situated in a place where compressed air fears to tread. I could open the system and futz around inside, but...no. Electronics have been known to spontaneously catch on fire when I even consider touching them, just to save themselves from the horror my giant snausage fingers would inflict upon them.

So it's back to repair for my shiny black system, eventually. I am currently playing through Mana Khemia for the PS2 on it, and while I have a fully functioning memory card adapter there is no way I can go back to playing this on my composite-connected PS2 after starting it on my HDMI PS3. The whole thing will run me $149, but it sure beats just buying a new one.

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The ultimate irony here is that right next to my PlayStation 3 sits my launch Xbox 360, it's glowing green light mocking my plight. Truly I must live in some sort of bizarro world when the world's most unreliable video game console lasts longer than what I often considered the most solid piece of video game hardware to come out in years. If I had to guess, I'd say the PS3 committed suicide after too many viewings of A Knight's Tale on Blu-ray. I shall be more careful of my viewing habits in the future.